Goldman sets $40 bln clean energy investment plan

May 23 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to
channel investments totaling $40 billion over the next decade
into renewable energy projects, an area the investment bank
called one of the biggest profit opportunities since its
economists got excited about emerging markets in 2001.

Goldman executives said this week that demand for
alternative energy sources will grow with global energy demand,
and as big manufacturing countries, including China and Brazil,
set more aggressive targets for reducing emissions. The bank
plans to finance deals with clients' money and, to a lesser
extent, its own funds.

Goldman, which plans to announce the new target at its
annual meeting on Thursday, already invests in clean technology.
In 2011, it helped finance $4.8 billion in clean technology
companies globally, and co-invested more than $500 million in
that area. The new target would average out to $4 billion a
year, leading some analysts to minimize the target as more of a
"charm offensive" than a new initiative.

In 2005, Goldman pledged to invest and finance $1 billion of
environmentally friendly projects. By the end of 2011, the
company had exceeded its goal, arranging $24 billion worth of
financing and investing $4 billion into such projects, said
Kyung-Ah Park, head of environmental markets at Goldman.

Goldman has also pledged to reduce its own net carbon
emissions to zero by 2020.

Stuart Bernstein, head of Goldman's clean technology and
renewables investment banking group, compared the opportunity to
technology investments in the 1990s or investing 10 years ago in
fast-growing countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China, for
which Goldman economist Jim O'Neill coined the term "BRIC" in
2001.

"This is another emerging opportunity we think will be quite
large," Bernstein said.

Enthusiasm for renewables was high in 2006 and 2007 as oil
prices soared. But enthusiasm waned after the financial crisis
cut energy demand and cash-strapped governments reduced
subsidies for alternative energy programs.

The use of hydraulic fracturing technology to access
abundant supplies of natural gas in the United States and
elsewhere has also undermined alternative sources of energy.

"Obviously we recognize this is not the easiest of times in
the clean energy market but nevertheless the underlying thesis
as to why cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy need to
scale up still holds true," Park said.

CHARM OFFENSIVE

Analysts and experts said Goldman may also be looking to
score public relations points for a relatively small investment.

The bank has been on a charm offensive in recent months,
after a former employee wrote a scathing opinion piece in the
New York Times in March accusing Goldman of ripping off clients
regularly. That was the latest in a series of
blows the bank's image has suffered since the financial crisis.

"It's forcing a firm that had its roots in being private for
a very long time to have to go out there and defend itself,"
said Michael Carrazza, a former Goldman banker who is now CEO of
the private equity firm Solaia Capital Advisors. Promoting these
sorts of initiatives makes sense, to show that the bank does
some good, Carrazza added.
(Reporting By Lauren Tara LaCapra)